Pink-footed Shearwater

How to find it

Go out by boat into deep water, since this is not a bird of the shore. Small chartered trips from the Los Sueños marina area have found it beyond the continental shelf. Look for feeding flocks and bait balls, where tuna and Spinner Dolphins drive fish to the surface and shearwaters, boobies and terns gather. Watching feeding groups at sea is a good way to find it, and fishing boats can attract it too. Scan among the Wedge-tailed Shearwaters, where a single Pink-footed has been called a good record, and remember it may be seen together with Sooty Shearwater.

How to recognise it

This is a large shearwater, about 48 cm long with a wingspan of about 109 cm.

Look for these marks:

Grayish-brown upperparts and white underparts on adults.

A pink bill with a black tip.

Pinkish feet, though at sea you will rarely see them.

A white underwing mottled with grayish-brown.

The species comes in darker and lighter color forms, so not every bird matches the typical pale picture. The line between its dark and light areas is less neat than on some look-alikes. In flight it often tilts sideways until one wing nearly touches the water. It glides more than it flaps, with stiff-winged glides and a few labored wingbeats, and its wingbeats are slower than a Sooty Shearwater's.

Behaviour and diet

This shearwater often feeds alongside tunas, dolphins and other seabirds, and it also follows fishing vessels. It catches prey by seizing it at the surface or by diving.

Off the Costa Rican Pacific, boat surveys found mostly single birds in deep water. A feeding frenzy can gather many, though: one birder reported hundreds of Wedge-tailed and Pink-footed Shearwaters, along with boobies and terns, over tuna and Spinner Dolphins.

Where it lives

It feeds over open ocean waters, far from shore. In Costa Rica, boat surveys saw it off the north, central and southern Pacific coasts, mostly in deep water beyond the continental slope. The authors call it a regular, widespread visitor.

Records come mostly from the coast and from Isla del Coco National Park. Costa Rica lies within its non-breeding range, and the species can reach Canadian waters on its northward journey.

When to see it

Researchers saw it off the Costa Rican Pacific in January, March, April, September and November, and call it nearly year round. That differs from older reports that gave it a narrower season.

Similar birds

Off the Pacific coast it is mainly confused with Buller's Shearwater, which is slimmer, with a much longer tail, a clearly patterned grey and black back and much whiter underparts. Flesh-footed Shearwater is the closest look-alike, with near-identical size and shape, but it has dark underparts. Sooty Shearwater has a dark bill and dark underparts. The pale form of the Wedge-tailed Shearwater is smaller and lacks the underwing mottling.

Names and lore in Costa Rica

The Costa Rican Spanish name is Pardela Blanca Común. Mexico calls it Pardela pata-rosada, and Chile calls it Fardela blanca.

Status and conservation

The official Costa Rica list marks it M, a migrant, and it is listed as Vulnerable overall.

Photography tips

Watch for bait balls and busy feeding frenzies on the water, because Pink-footed Shearwaters often join these flocks and they are good places to point a camera.